Read

Start a book club: Why not start a book club with colleagues or meet friends in a cafe to discuss the latest book? This book list, courtesy of the Cincinnati Library to help you get started. Why not have a browse and see if something tickles your fancy?

If you love reading and want to learn more about reading between the lines, why not try a free online literature course at http://www.litlovers.com/course/. It'll take you just 30 minutes to learn something new. Go on, try it.

Here are some recommendations:

Darkness Peering (Alice Blanchard)

Sheriff Nalen Storrow committed suicide in 1980 when it looked as though his son, Billy, was implicated in the murder of a fourteen-year-old girl. Eighteen years later, his daughter, Rachel, is on the force when the disappearance of another woman again casts suspicion on Billy. A resonant and suspenseful novel of family loyalty and duty.

The Distant Land of My Father (Bo Caldwell)

Anna Schoene's flamboyant, wayward father stays in Shanghai when Anna's mother moves her to the U.S. on the eve of World War II. It's a separation that shapes Anna's whole life, even after father and daughter are reunited. A mesmerising portrayal of "a risky person to love."

Wonder Boys (Michael Chabon)

Professor Grady Tripp was a "wonder boy" - a young writer who achieved instant success. He has never been able to maintain this level of achievement and is now going through a mid-life crisis. A funny but tender portrait of the literary world and those who worship in it.

Pope Joan (Donna Woolfolk Cross)

Legend has it that a woman once held the papal throne. Did she really exist, and how could her rise to power have come about? Cross creates a fascinating historical novel, giving us the story of a young girl named Joan and her unorthodox life in the fourteenth century. This compelling historical fiction will draw the reader back to the Middle Ages.

The Brothers K (David James Duncan)

Duncan's endearing family saga mesmerizes readers with the ups and downs of the extraordinary Chance family, whose six children are raised in the 1960s and 1970s in the Pacific Northwest. In one of America's most turbulent eras, the family weathers experiences and experiments in religion, relationships, baseball, and politics with humor and humanity.

Everything is Illuminated (Jonathan Safran Foer)

Foer mixes tragedy and comedy in a stunning debut. An American student, accompanied by a young translator, seeks the Ukrainian shtetl where a woman may once have saved his grandfather from the Nazis. As his quest unfolds, his novel-in-progress traces the village's dark history.

Plainsong (Kent Haruf)

The harsh plains of contemporary eastern Colorado are the setting for this beautiful, simply written book of love, family, and community. Facing loss and abandonment, several townspeople-among them a pregnant high school girl, a depressed teacher, and two farmer brothers-come together to form a different kind of family. A quiet, poignant work. A sequel, Eventide, was published in 2004.

When the Elephants Dance (Tess Uriza Holthe)

"When the elephants dance, the chickens must be careful." As the Americans and Japanese struggle for control of the Philippines during World War II, a group of families and friends spend three years hiding in a basement, where magical Filipino myths and folktales draw them together and offer compassionate lessons in life, love, and death in this entrancing debut.

When We Were Orphans (Kazuo Ishiguro)

Christopher Banks, raised in Shanghai, China, is sent to England after his parents disappear. When he returns as an adult to search for them just before World War II, he is forced to confront the illusions on which he has built his life. By the author of the award-winning novel The Remains of the Day.

Hostile Witness (William Lashner)

Victor Carl is willing to do almost anything to escape his failing law practice and is sure it's going to be easy money when he's offered the chance to defend a politician charged with racketeering. He's in over his head before he realises it's a setup. This absorbing legal thriller takes some surprisingly dark twists through the human psyche.

Shutter Island (Dennis Lehane)

In 1954, US Marshal Teddy Daniels and his partner are sent to Massachusetts' Shutter Island to investigate a missing insane asylum patient. Soon Daniels is unsure of his own sanity, as gale-force winds rack the island, his partner vanishes, and he suspects someone is feeding him drugs. This is a first-rate psychological thriller that will leave readers hanging till the last page.

Miracle at St. Anna (James McBride)

Lost behind enemy lines in December of 1944, four African-American GIs from a "Buffalo Soldiers" unit find refuge in a tiny Italian village. As the Germans close in, the four very different men discover that miracles may still be possible. McBride's magical tale illuminates faith, trust, and hope against the darkness of war and bigotry.

The Piano Tuner (Daniel Mason)

A Victorian piano tuner is sent out to a remote post in Burma to repair a piano, an instrument on which the fate of the colony may rest. His encounter with a charismatic imperial officer and his seduction by the Burmese landscape and culture are hauntingly recounted in this mesmerising tale of empire, literary historical fiction at its finest.

In the Lake of the Woods (Tim O'Brien)

John and Kathy Wade are in retreat in a cabin in the woods when Kathy mysteriously disappears. Was she murdered, or did she run from a marriage not as successful as it appeared? Through John's gripping narration, interspersed with interviews and news clippings, the Wades' less-than-perfect lives are examined in a way that will leave the reader hypnotised.

Crawfish Dreams (Nancy Rawles)

Camille refuses to move away from her home in Watts despite her children's worries. She has cooked for forty-one years for local priests and now is determined to own a restaurant in her neighbourhood. This winning story, told with humor and frankness, offers uplifting insight into human goodness and frailties.

The Smallest Color (Bill Roorbach)

Coop Henry has spent the last thirty years maintaining the story that his long-missing brother, a 1960s radical, is alive and in hiding. Only five people know the truth, and it is tearing Coop apart. Past and present alternate with rising intensity as an award-winning writer tells a story of love, loyalty, and lies.

Empire Falls (Richard Russo)

Miles Roby runs the Empire Grill in his dying hometown of Empire Falls, Maine. Though he looks like a failure and his dream of owning the grill a fantasy, his life is much richer than at first it appears. The author of Nobody's Fool has produced another compassionate and complex novel of small-town New England life. The novel won a Pulitzer Prize.

The Perfect Witness (Barry Siegel)

Greg Monarch agrees to defend his former partner, Ira Sullivan, when Ira is charged with a murder he can't remember. The prosecution has a witness, a beautiful woman who claims she saw the whole thing. But is she lying? How far will Greg go to manipulate her into becoming a "perfect witness" for the defence? Siegel's spellbinding debut goes beyond courtroom drama to an astute examination of the legal system in all its complications.

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (Dai Sijie)

Two young men imprisoned in a remote Maoist re-education camp are enthralled when they discover a collection of forbidden European classics. When one of the boys decides to share these books with the local tailor's daughter, the results are not what he expected. Dai Sijie, a camp survivor himself, has written a poignant and charmingly funny debut.

The Story of Lucy Gault (William Trevor)

A misguided youthful action and its far-reaching consequences are the materials with which master storyteller Trevor crafts this novel of guilt, grief, understanding, and forgiveness. The story begins in an Ireland uneasy under English martial law in 1921, when young Lucy Gault runs away to try to force her parents not to flee the country.

Easter Island (Jennifer Vanderbes)

Although separated by sixty years, the voyages of two women to Easter Island converge in intricate ways. British Elsa Beazley, her scientist husband, and her mentally ill sister arrive in 1912; while American paleontologist Greer Faraday arrives in 1973. History, science, love, and duty intertwine in this remarkable novel of a remote and mysterious place.

The Wedding (Dorothy West)

The extended Cole family is an African-American success story in Martha's Vineyard in the 1950s. Though descendents of slaves, they are educated and affluent. When one branch of the family prepares for a wedding, however, their comfortable lives are shaken up. West was one of the writers of the Harlem Renaissance movement, and this work of her old age is superb.

Short Stories

Ten Little Indians (Sherman Alexie)

Alexie's stories address universal themes of love, loss, humor, and sacrifice, but his characters are almost always members of the Spokane tribe of the Pacific Northwest. It's this juxtaposition of Native life and culture against the white world that draws us into the writer's compassionate, straight-forward story-telling and his compelling vision of modern life.

Interpreter of Maladies (Jhumpa Lahiri)

This compassionate debut collection of short stories follows the lives of several Indian characters who are stoically trying to accept their dislocation to the United States. With poise and objectivity, Lahiri writes of the loneliness, the trials, and the degradation that immigrants face. Moving and thought provoking international fiction.

Drinking Coffee Elsewhere (ZZ Packer)

Packer's clear and graceful writing in this debut collection of eight stories draws the reader powerfully into the lives of the predominantly young, female, African-American characters. These well-realised characters face life in all of its complexities. This debut is all the more impressive for the author's youth.